“Please don’t make me die in prison waiting for a chance to be free,” Exotic, whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage, told a federal judge, reported The Associated Press.
Maldonado-Passage in 2019 was convicted in a murder-for-hire case involving animal welfare activist Carole Baskin, who was also featured in the “Tiger King” documentary. He also was convicted of 19 separate wildlife crimes.
After his sentencing in early 2020, he claimed that his two murder-for-hire convictions were wrongfully separated and said Baskin was unfairly allowed to attend his trial despite her status as a witness.“The defense submitted a series of attachments that showed excessive government involvement in the creation of the offense for which he’s been convicted,” attorney Molly Parmer told reporters following the hearing on Friday. “We are going to continue our post-conviction litigation, but we did preview for the court the evidence we have through our post-conviction investigation.”
